


Unlockable Cutscene

by Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life
Genre: Angst, Birthday Party, Black Mesa Sweet Voice, Canon - Video Game, Canon Compliant, Canon Dialogue, Canon Related, Canonical Character Death, Crying, Half-Life VR But the AI is Self-Aware, Heavy Angst, M/M, Meta, but only technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28378185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat/pseuds/Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat
Summary: “Hey… Tommy?” Tommy hummed instead of answering, and Gordon was surprised that he could hear him over the sound of the party around them. He supposed that that was the advantage of video games. If something was important, it would be heard over the music. “There was… there was this really weird moment when we were fighting Benrey, and, uh… I was wondering if you knew anything about it? I mean… I kinda…” He blew out a breath, but Tommy had already set down his soda can and stood up.“Y-you want to know why I paused your game, d-don’t you, Mr. Freeman?” He asked.
Relationships: Benrey & Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Tommy Coolatta, Tommy Coolatta & Gordon Freeman
Comments: 12
Kudos: 51





	Unlockable Cutscene

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, I've had a variation of this idea pretty much since I saw the finale, and I finally sat down and wrote it. It turned out way sadder than I had originally thought it would. That's okay though, it happens sometimes. I originally wrote this with the idea that Tommy and Benrey are besties, because I love that dynamic for them, but it quickly veered into a pretty romantic context. Still, I tagged it as both, because it could still be platonic. I purposefully left out the scenes in/after the credits because it made the fic flow smoother. Also, Gordon is the player, and the Science Team are part of a mod he downloaded for the original Half Life because... plot. I doubt I'll ever do anything with this mini au again, but... maybe...
> 
> Anyways, I think that's everything I wanted to say! If you didn't read this, I think it'll all make sense anyways, but we'll see, I guess! I hope you enjoy this!

Gordon jumped, looking to his right when he heard Tommy scream. He was being surrounded by skeletons, slowly being cocooned in their sweet voice. “Save Tommy!” He shouted, already making his way over to his friend.

“We need to help Tommy!” Dr. Coomer yelled.

“Save Tommy!” Bubby added. Gordon had to remind himself that they were AI, no matter how scarily aware they seemed, so it made sense that they’d state the obvious.

“let Tommy goo, it’s okay.” Gordon turned to look at Benrey, surprised to hear him say anything positive about the team, especially an order to his… “minions” to stop attacking one of them.

“Oh. Okay.” Apparently, Dr. Coomer was just as surprised as he was.

“What?” Gordon asked. “Did he call- okay, he likes Tommy.” It was important to note, even if they were in the final battle. It might end up being some sort of bargaining chip later. After all, Gordon had always kinda liked Benrey, as annoying as he was.

“Th-that was nice,” Dr. Coomer commented, surprisingly calm despite the situation (although that was becoming more and more normal).

“I-I-I, okay?” Gordon said. He turned back to Benrey to start firing, but he didn’t get a chance.

Because the game paused.

“What?” Gordon lifted his VR headset, quickly moving over to his computer. “Oh c’mon, please don’t crash, I’m at the final boss!” It didn’t look like the game had crashed, just that it had paused itself. Gordon clicked the “Unpause” button, ready to slip the headset back on and get back into the world of the game.

“An error occurred, please try again later.”

“No, no, no, come on!” Gordon said. He hadn’t saved since they went through the portal on Xen, he hadn’t been allowed to. Apparently that really was the point of no return. He wasn’t sure if the game even autosaved. He took a deep breath. “Okay… it’s just the pause menu… it’s probably not broken… it just needs a second to load or something.” Man, he really didn’t know a whole lot about video games… He waited another minute, before clicking the unpause button again.

“An error occurred, please try again later.”

“Come on!” He shouted, clicking the button again.

“Please Mr. Freeman.”

Gordon jumped. The message was written in a simple yellow font. It was… it looked the same as Tommy’s subtitles. “Tommy…?” Gordon mumbled. Tommy had seemed like the least messed up AI. Awkward and uncomfortable, sure, but he’d been like that from the beginning. Gordon clicked the button again, just trying to get an answer at this point.

“I’m just saying goodbye.”

“What the fuck…” Gordon whispered, saying aloud what he’d been thinking for a long time in this game. He clicked the button one more time. He wasn’t sure what else to do.

“Just put the headset back on, Mr. Freeman. I’ll start it again when I’m done. I promise I won’t be too much longer.”

Gordon was baffled, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do, so he followed the instructions on the screen. In the headset he could still see the final boss stage on Xen, and he tried to turn his head to get a better look. After all, he’d been pretty focused on Benrey and hadn’t had the chance to pay a lot of attention to the level design. But it didn’t work. Sure, the Gordon Freeman outside of the game turned his head, but the one in game didn’t. It really was paused, and it looked like there wasn’t anything he could do for now. He was just about to set the controller down and shut the game down when it jumped into action again.

“i can’t wait for you guys to see hell!”

* * *

“Hey… Tommy?” Tommy hummed instead of answering, and Gordon was surprised that he could hear him over the sound of the party around them. He supposed that that was the advantage of video games. If something was important, it would be heard over the music. “There was… there was this really weird moment when we were fighting Benrey, and, uh… I was wondering if you knew anything about it? I mean… I kinda…” He blew out a breath, but Tommy had already set down his soda can and stood up.

“Y-you want to know why I paused your game, d-don’t you, Mr. Freeman?” He asked.

“I… y-yeah,” Gordon replied lamely. Coomer had said a lot of weird stuff that heavily implied that he knew he was in a game, but Tommy had given Gordon pretty much no inclination that he knew as well. 

Tommy smiled, but it was much sadder than he’d ever smiled at Gordon before. “W-well… I think we’re going to need a more… need a place where no one can see us,” he said. “I don’t want to… to break Bubby’s brain, or… or make Dr. Coomer even more upset.” He started walking down one of the hallways of the Chuck E. Cheese map, and Gordon followed him without much thought. Tommy waved at G-Man before they disappeared from the sight of the main room, and G-Man smiled and waved back.

Gordon followed Tommy through the hallways, until they eventually stopped in front of a restroom. Tommy gestured for him to go inside, and Gordon paused for a moment. “Um… listen man… I know you know this is a game, but, like… I’ve been there with VR, and…” he trailed off, feeling weird about the fact that he was blushing in real life.

“Oh! No! This is nothing like that, Mr. Freeman!” Tommy quickly clarified. Real life Gordon felt even more weird about the fact that he was relieved. “I-I just… I don’t know where else we can get privacy in a Chuck E. Cheese. It is… it is a place for the whole… the whole family!”

“Are you going to go on about how it’s a ‘family entertainment center’ too?” Gordon asked. How the AI had found out about that argument he had with his friends, he’d never know. “Cuz, look, it’s totally a restaurant, and-”

“M-Mr. Freeman, I really don’t want to fight you about that,” Tommy said. “Although, j-just so you know, it is both.”

“What? How?” Gordon asked. Tommy didn’t reply, he just walked into the bathroom. Gordon followed him, not sure of what else to do. He was ready to continue the argument, before he remembered what he’d first come to Tommy about. “Wait… how did you even pause the game?” He asked Tommy. “I mean… I’m beyond the point of questioning how and how much you know about being AI, but that’s not something a normal AI in a game can do!”

“W-well… maybe it has something to do with the fact that… that my dad is the most powerful being in the g-game,” Tommy suggested. He shrugged. “I don’t know why I-I can, Mister Freeman, just that I can. Or… could.” He smiled again, still somewhat sad looking. “I can’t do it any… anymore. I think that this was… was supposed to be a cutscene, but you, or my dad, or somebody managed to make my party a… an actually playable level.” He chuckled. “Although… compared to everything that we’ve… you’ve been through, I bet it’s a kind of… I bet it’s a pretty boring last level. More… more boring than a math lecture on a Monday!”

Gordon nodded. He didn’t want to accept that answer, because he _really_ wanted to know exactly who or what had allowed Tommy to pause his game, but Tommy really didn’t seem to know. He’d have to go onto that old forum he’d found from when this game was first released. He was still looking for a way to contact the original creator of the AI mod. “So, uh… why did you want to go somewhere more private? To, uh, to talk about why you paused my game?” 

Tommy nodded. “F-for starters, I didn’t want anyone to be aware th-that this is a video game.” He chuckled. “Or, any more aware than they already are, in… in Dr. Coomer’s case. But there is… there is another reason.” He opened one of the stalls, looked it over, before turning away from it. “It’s all a missing texture. Th-the door went with it, so I can’t close it again. Let’s just hope that none… that no one needs to use the bathroom.” He moved to hop on top of the sinks, and gestured for Gordon to do the same. He did, sitting next to Tommy in the middle of the sinks. “I don’t… I don’t think there’s any post credit cut scenes, so… congratulations, Mr. Freeman! You’re about to see the last cutscene of the game!” He kicked his feet happily. “I hope you like it! Especially since I think… especially since I’m pretty sure it counts as ‘unlockable’.”

“Uh… thanks?” Gordon said, more of a question than a statement. He stared at Tommy for a moment while he held a hand up to his temple, before Gordon was standing in the final boss area of Xen again. However, this time, he wasn’t contained to the limited vision of his VR model. He could float around to get better looks at areas or places, and he had a feeling he could clip through things if he wanted to. But he didn’t, especially when all the gunfire came to a stop around him.

“huh?” Benrey asked, looking around. “what the hell?”

“Benrey! Down here!” Gordon turned to look at Tommy as he waved his arms and yelled. 

“Tommy?” Benrey asked. It reminded Gordon of the beginning of the game when he had bellowed Tommy’s name to him from the test chamber. Unlike this time, it sounded hesitant, and almost… afraid.

“Y-yeah!” Tommy yelled. “I-I paused the game!”

“really?” Benrey asked. Despite being quite far away and having a tiny head, he seemed to see Tommy nod, because he carefully brought a massive hand down to Tommy’s level. Gordon held back a yelp as it came down, but it was slow and gentle, and landed on the ground next to Tommy. Tommy climbed onto Benrey’s hand, and Benrey carefully lifted him up to his face. Gordon floated up to be closer to their level, and Benrey’s head returned to a proportional size. “why’d you do that, bro?”

“I-I, uh…” For once, Tommy’s stuttering and stalling seemed to be from emotions instead of just the way he spoke. “I wanted to say goodbye.”

Benrey’s eyes widened, but seemed to soften at the same time. “bro, come on, you know that’s dumb. Feetman is going to be freaking out about his game randomly pausing.”

“I-I’m already dealing with it,” Tommy assured Benrey. He spoke again before Benrey could. “I’m going to miss you…”

“hey, Tommy, c’mon,” Benrey said. “we’ll probably see each other in… in whatever there is after Gordos shuts the game down.”

Tommy sniffed, and Gordon realized that he was crying quietly. “I hope so,” he said. “You aren’t going to be able to come to my birthday party. It won’t be the same without y-you.”

“is your dad taking you to Chuck E. Cheese again?” Benrey asked. Not for the first time, Gordon wondered what "memories" the AI had, and how they intertwined. 

“Y-yeah,” Tommy said. “I’m just gonna… I’m gonna be thinking about you the whole time I’m in the ball pit.” The two of them laughed, and Gordon felt his heart ache slightly. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to see this anymore. “I’m going to miss you s-s-so much.” Tommy began to sob quietly.

“hey, hey, c’mon, there’s no crying on your birthday,” Benrey said. His voice was thick with unshed tears, and Gordon felt himself wishing even more that Benrey hadn’t been the final boss. “birthday boys don’t cry, man, it’s like… rule number one.”

“G-gamers don’t cry e-either, but that’s never stopped you,” Tommy said with a breathy chuckle. He reached his arms up like he was going to hold Benrey’s face, and Benrey brought him even closer. Gordon clipped through the visor of Benrey’s helmet to see the two of them better. Tommy had pressed his forehead to Benrey’s gently, and both of them had their eyes closed. It looked like something so practiced and familiar between the two of them, aside from the size difference. “I love you,” Tommy said, and his voice was the firmest and most sure that Gordon had ever heard.

“i love you too,” Benrey replied, his voice quiet. Tommy kissed Benrey’s forehead, and Gordon knew that if Benrey had been his normal size, he would have done the same. Benrey moved Tommy down to about chest level again, before letting out some Sweet Voice. 

“M-magenta to cyan m-means…” Tommy sobbed before he could finish his rhyme. “I hope so too,” he whispered.

“you should unpause Feetman’s game before he blows a fuse,” Benrey said.

“Y-yeah,” Tommy said. Benrey carefully set him down, and he wiped his eyes. The two of them shared a small, sad smile before Benrey changed his head size again, and Tommy held his hands out to his sides. They began to glow yellow, and then there was a bright yellow flash of light.

Gordon blinked his eyes to try and clear his vision of the intense light, and when it finally did clear, he was sitting on the sink in a Chuck E. Cheese bathroom again. Tommy was sitting next to him, smiling sadly as tears slid down his cheeks. “I-I’m sorry you had to see it h-here,” he said. “M-my dad talked about maybe… he talked about possibly renting out a movie theater f-for my birthday instead, but… but I wanted t-to play in the ball pit with Benrey a-again.” He wiped at his eyes, but it did little to stop the tears. “What did you think? Not half bad for a… for the final cutscene, huh?”

“Why?” Gordon asked. “Why Benrey? I mean, come on, he’s so annoying!”

Tommy just smiled wider. “You t-two never did get along, even in the end,” he said. “Benrey… Benrey and I, we… we clicked in an odd way. I-I-I don’t even know how to explain it. I don’t know if there even is a way to.” Tommy leaned back on his hands and looked at the ceiling. Gordon copied him. “I guess… I guess you could say th-that I like mean people.”

Gordon chuckled, although he felt bad about doing it in a moment that his friend was being so emotionally vulnerable. He shook his head to remind himself that Tommy was just AI, no matter how real he felt. “Benrey said that about you before the resonance cascade. Although he said it to explain why you like me.”

Tommy laughed, but it came out choked and sad. “M-maybe he was right,” he said in a way that was trying to be teasing, but felt way too genuine. “I tried to make you understand, Mr. Freeman. Benrey isn’t very… he doesn’t really express h-himself in a way that most people can… can understand. He was trying to tell you, a-and us, at the end that he didn’t… that he wasn’t really bad.” Tommy let out a breath, which sounded almost like a sob. “Whoever made… made the mod for this game didn’t do a very g-good job. The code is really… it’s super messed up. They a-accidentally got rid of the real final boss. So, i-instead, they made it one of us. I feel like that must have been… that it must have taken longer than just bringing the n-normal boss back, but I’m a biologist, n-not a computer scientist.”

“Gosh…” Gordon whispered. “I’m really sorry, Tommy. That sounds like hell.” He looked over and saw that Tommy’s tears had only gotten worse, and that he seemed to be swallowing a lot. “You can cry, man, it’s okay.”

Tommy let out a small sob, and a bit of Sweet Voice escaped his throat. Gordon jumped, not sure what to say. He didn’t even know that Tommy could do Sweet Voice. Maybe all the AI could, but only Benrey and Dr. Coomer had known about it. Tommy broke down a moment later, loud sobs and Sweet Voice escaping his throat as he cried into his hands. Gordon awkwardly rubbed his back, trying to be comforting. The Sweet Voice coiled around the room, all of it the same as what Benrey had sung in the cutscene Gordon had just watched. After a while, Tommy slowly calmed down. He managed to remove his face from his hands, and he wiped away the last of the tears. He looked up at the ceiling again, this time staring at the Sweet Voice.

“What does it mean?” Gordon asked quietly.

“Magenta to cyan means… means that I hope to see him again,” Tommy whispered. 

The bathroom began to fade from Gordon’s view, and he realized that it was the end of the level. He had assumed that he was going to have to force the level to end, or find some objective, but it seemed to have come to him without him even realizing it. Tommy slowly faded from his view, and he just barely managed to wave before Gordon couldn’t see him at all anymore. The credits began to roll, and Gordon considered just skipping them or taking his headset off, but he kept watching. Tommy had said that he didn’t think there was a post credit cutscene, but maybe he was wrong. Gordon really hoped he was. He wanted to see… something. He didn’t know what. Anything that meant that all the AI were happy after it all. No, that the _characters_ were happy after it all, he corrected himself. The AI didn’t have feelings, no matter how real their tears or screams sounded. As the last of the credits disappeared above the screen, Gordon sighed. He was just reaching up to take off the headset when green text appeared at the bottom of the dark screen.

“Hello? 

Testing, testing… 

Is… Is this thing on?

Ah! Hello Gordon!”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know the ball pit story, don't ask me aofnasodinf


End file.
